Well, Squiders, I’ve been working on the third book of a high fantasy trilogy recently (passed 50K this past week, hooray!). I’ve been working on this trilogy on and off for a lot longer than I like to own up to, and it’s very exciting to finally be working on the conclusion, and to finally get to write some scenes that I planned out forever years ago.
One thing that’s been planned forever is a certain character’s death. There’s plenty of reasons to kill this character off, in terms of characterization, plot, punching the readers right in the feels, etc.
And I’ve reached that point, that bullet point in the outline.
And it is not working.
I can’t quite figure out the scene in such a way to make it the poor guy eat it.
So I’m stuck in a bit of a dilemma. I could just let him live, but then I need to find another catalyst for a rather major plot point. I could kill him anyway, but I know that’ll feel forced, and since I hate “because the author says so” plot points, that’s not really a winning idea.
A third option would be to bring my big bad into the confrontation. That would definitely take care of the killing, but it would also make it so I have to re-plot the entire rest of the book.
The problem here is that I can’t tell what’s more important–killing this character? Keeping my big bad out of it for now? And I probably won’t be able to tell until I’m done with the book and can look at it objectively from an editing standpoint.
I keep telling myself that this is why God invented first drafts.
Doesn’t really help with the actual writing, though.
As for ROW80, we’re what, just about halfway? And I’m actually about a week ahead at the moment, which is brilliant, because I’m behind on some other things and because I have a booksigning on Saturday that I need to prepare for. (Anyone ever do a booksigning? I get a few minutes intro before hand and I have no idea what I should talk about.) Halfway on ROW80, halfway on the book–it’s all lovely.
(And, randomly, for those of you who are interested in my Doctor Who binge-watching, I finished Season 4 and the specials with Ten last weekend, and am now poised to dive into Eleven whenever I have free time/the inclination again.)
A book signing sounds really freakin’ exciting! I really can’t help you with regards to what is expected of you in terms of the introduction, have you tried searching for videos of other author signings to get a rough idea? I’m sure there is lots of useful tips ‘out there’ for you.
Are you going it solo, or will you be there with other authors?
Best of luck!
That’s a good idea. Off to YouTube it is!
It’s a local author signing, so I believe there will be four of us.
Kit – Oh my god, I can TOTALLY relate to your plotting vs. reality woes. Was working on a novel last year & had planned to use a character from the 1st book (whom we’d assumed was dead) be a major player in the 2nd book. But it wasn’t working & I couldn’t figure it out. Finally I asked my character about it, & you know what he said? “I’m dead.” WHAT?!? NOOOOOOO!!!! But I’m so glad I listened to him because after I got over my denial/pouty phase, I realized that it solved a lot of problems, & it didn’t take me as long as I feared it would to find a different catalyst for the main conflict. So my advice about what’s most important? To let go of what you think should happen & tell the story the way it wants to be told.
Ugh…I wish I could plot. The few times I’ve tried, my word count fell far short of what I expected and the pacing was far too fast. I’m sure you’ll find that happy medium of doing what’s in your original plan while still having it feel organic to the story that you’ve already written.